Florida principal Melissa Carter is under investigation for paddling a six-year-old student, while her mother who doesn’t speak much English, secretly videotaped.
The incident took place on April 13 at Central Elementary School in Clewiston, Florida located in Hendry County.
The school called the mother and told her that her 6-year-old daughter had damaged a computer and the repair fee would be $50.
According to the police report, the woman who called the mother mentioned paddling with a deputy present, but the mother said she didn’t understand the process correctly due to a language barrier.
The mother went to the school to pay the fee, but she was taken to the principal’s office instead.
Where she found her daughter, Principal Carter, and a clerk named Cecilia Self, but there was no deputy present.
The mother recounted the sequence of events in Spanish in an interview.
My daughter was already in the office.
The principal started to scream.
There are no cameras. What are we doing in this place? My daughter and I, alone.
The mother then hid her phone in her purse and started recording.
The hatred with which she hit my daughter, I mean it was a hatred that, really I’ve never hit my daughter like she hit her.
Nobody would have believed me.
I sacrificed my daughter, so all parents can realize what’s happening in this school.
See the video below:
Hendry County School District policy does not allow corporal punishment (paddling).
The policy states:
The superintendent shall designate sanctions for the infractions of rules, excluding corporal punishment.
It also encourages procedures that “do not demean students” and “do not tend to violate any individual rights constitutionally guaranteed to students.”
The family’s lawyer Brett Provinsky, who works with undocumented immigrants, said that the incident was aggravated battery.
That’s aggravated battery.
They’re using a weapon that can cause severe physical, harm.
The child is terrified, she feels vulnerable.
There’s nothing she can do in the hands of these adults, who treated her so brutally, savagely, sadistically.
The mother took her daughter to the doctor the same day to document the red marks and bruises.
She is now concerned that her daughter may have long-lasting psychological damage.
The mother said she is going to fight for justice for her daughter.
I’m going to get justice for my daughter because if I could not do it in front of her, I’m going to do it with justice.
The state attorney’s office is deciding if they are going to file criminal charges against Florida Principal Melissa Carter and clerk Cecilia Self.
The Department of Children and Families is also investigating the incident.
I though paddling had been banned in public schools a long time ago, but there are 19 states that permit paddling from preschool to 12th grade; those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
It’s no surprise to me that most of those states are in the South.
Your thoughts?…
Source: WINK News
